I was in the room when Zuckerberg shared his AI victory lap with a thicc Muse mascot

Mark Zuckerberg's AI bets are starting to pay off.

Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images Meta has been on a tear thanks to its new AI agent, Muse.

I was in the room at Meta Connect to watch Mark Zuckerberg take a victory lap.

The event heavily featured Muse's cute mascot, while the after-party served "Agent" cocktails.

Mark Zuckerberg swaggers onstage to thunderous applause and a sea of raised phones.

He is wearing a T-shirt that reads "BUILDING IS MY LOVE LANGUAGE." Meta has indeed been building, and in the auditorium at the company's Menlo Park headquarters, Zuckerberg is taking a victory lap.

The company's personal AI agent, Muse , has proven a hit since its September 8 launch.

And at Meta Connect , the company's annual event where Zuckerberg unveils its latest gadgets and technology, Muse is the star of the show.

I couldn't walk 10 steps across Meta's sprawling campus without running into lifesized versions of Jolly, Muse's thicc ( officially ), pudgy mascot that somewhat resembles a sloth.

A group of people sat in the row behind me couldn't stop talking about how cute Jolly is.

Meta's mascot was everywhere.

Pranav Dixit / Business Insider Meanwhile, Zuck prowls the stage like he owns it (which, to be fair, he does).

The sweaty nerd who wilted in his hoodie under Walt Mossberg's glare in 2010 is long gone.

And for the next hour, the CEO and his wingmen, CTO Andrew Bosworth and chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, announce a lot of new products and features, including a new camera-free pair of its smart glasses, and Muse availability for Ray-Ban Meta glasses .